1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for keeping a traffic lane and preventing lane-deviation for a vehicle and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for keeping a traffic lane and preventing lane-deviation for a vehicle that controls a steering direction and a steering amount so as for the vehicle to keep the traffic lane by using information on a left traffic lane of a vehicle while travelling and information on a curbstone provided at a right side of the vehicle and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, by observing from a car accident that shows an increase of death to riders due to accidents between cars, an automotive industry is motivated to introduce an automotive safety device for preventing car accidents and protecting the riders when the accident occurs. This is a global trend and world countries primarily including developed countries have hastened to develop and introduce an automotive safety device as a countermeasure for the increase in traffic accidents. According to these trends, a safety device for promoting a driver's safety, an additional device for driving convenience, and various travelling control devices are being applied to cars.
Technologies applied to the travelling control devices include an autonomous steering control technology of autonomously controlling a steering angle of a steering device (e.g., handle) of the vehicle by using information on a left traffic lane and a right traffic lane of the vehicle acquired by using a camera in accordance with a geometric state of a road and a traffic lane deviation (lane-deviation) prevention warning technology for preventing a safety accident generated when the vehicle breaks away the left traffic lane or the right traffic lane while travelling.
In a known travelling control technology using a camera, it is frequent that an image is not normally photographed due to back light which may be generated depending on a travelling direction of the vehicle. As a result, there is a high possibility that since a traffic lane is not accurately recognized from a photographed image, there is a high possibility that steering control cannot be performed or a misoperation will occur due to misrecognition.
In particular, in the prior art, in the case in which the width of the road is variable or in the case of a one-way lane, right traffic lane information may not be acquired or the vehicle may break away the traffic lane due to misoperation by misrecognition.